Just wanted to introduce myself. I live in CT, USA and visited the homeland for first time in Feb. Just made reservations to return Feb 2008. Plan to live there at some point, early retirement? When visiting Rome, Florence and Venice I got the feeling I had been lost and was discovering the real reason for the courses I took in college, Renaissance Art, Philosphy, Religion etc. . ..

Welcome to the forum, James.
I read briefly your bio and I think it is a good idea to establish a double citizenship. I just went to Italian Embassy with my son and they gave him the citizenship in just a few minutes. I was impressed by how little paperwork they needed. ( Apparently Italian citizenship is through blood lines so all I had to do is regsiter my son. At leats this way in the future he can decise where he wants to live
Paolo

Ciao James. My brother and I (and my wife eventually) are working on obtaining dual citizenship through the Italian consulate office in San Francisco. Our paths is through our mother. We are waiting for my father’s and mother’s birth certificates from the appropriate “comune” in Italy. I’m in the process of translating our English documents (our birth and marriage certificates and my parents death certificates – they were born in Italy but passed away in the US) into Italian – a full time job. We’re hoping to have everything completed by this time next year sow e can start planning our retirement in mid 2009.